ered more of their lands either tributary to or an integral part
of the English territories, whether by subjugating or expatriating the
natives." In 606 AEthelfrith rounded the Peakland, now known as
Derbyshire, and marched from the upper Trent upon the Roman city of
Chester. There "he made a terrible slaughter of the perfidious race."
Over two thousand Welsh monks from the monastery of Bangor Iscoed were
slain by the heathen invader; but Baeda explains that AEthelfrith put them
to death because they prayed against him; a sentence which strongly
suggests the idea that the English did not usually kill non-combatant
Welshmen.

The victory of Chester divided the Welsh power in the north as that of
Deorham had divided it in the south. Henceforward, the Northumbrians
bore rule from sea to sea, from the mouth of the Humber to the mouths of
the Mersey and the Dee. AEthelfrith even kept up a rude navy in the Irish
Sea. Thus the Welsh nationality was broken up into three separate and
weak divisions--Strathclyde in the north, Wales in the centre, and
Damnonia, or Cornwall, in the south. Against these three fragments the
English presented an unbroken and aggressive front, Northumbria standing
over against Strathclyde, Mercia steadily pushing its way along the
upper valley of the Severn against North Wales, and Wessex advancing in
the south against South Wales and the West Welsh of Somerset, Devon, and
Cornwall. Thus the conquest of the interior was practically complete.
There still remained, it is true, the subjugation of the west; but the
west was brought under the English over-lordship by slow degrees, and in
a very different manner from the east and the south coast, or even the
central belt. Cornwall finally yielded under AEthelstan; Strathclyde was
gradually absorbed by the English in the south and the Scottish kingdom
on the north; and the last remnant of Wales only succumbed to the
intruders under the rule of the Angevin Edward I.

There were, in fact, three epochs of English extension in Britain. The
first epoch was one of colonisation on the coasts and along the valleys
of the eastward rivers. The second epoch was one of conquest and partial
settlement in the central plateau and the westward basins. The third
epoch was one of merely political subjugation in the western mountain
regions. The proofs of these assertions we must examine at length in the
succeeding chapter.

CHAPTER VII.

THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE